The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 18, April, 1859

2

History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. By John Gorham Palfrey. Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1858. 8vo. pp. 638.

History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. By Samuel Greene Arnold & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 574.

3

BANCROFT'S History of the United States. I. 380.

4

De Feriis Alsensibus, Epist. III. See Dennis's Etruscan Antiquities, Vol. I.

5

"He and I have been companions for thirty-three years, and every year we have come to Rome to play the novena."

6

"What do I care whether it is handsome or ugly? It's all the same to me,—ugly or handsome,—handsome or ugly. There!"

7

"And, dearest, you will never weep for me-e-e-e,  The day when I shall be no mo-o-o-ore."

8

As this charge has become of great importance in the affairs of the Territory, we subjoin the precise language of that portion of it which refers to polygamy:—

"It cannot be concealed, gentlemen, that certain domestic arrangements exist in this Territory destructive of the peace, good order, and morals of society,—arrangements at variance with those of all enlightened and Christian communities in the world; and sapping as they do the very foundation of all virtue, honesty, and morality, it is an imperative duty falling upon you as grand jurors diligently to inquire into this evil and make every effort to check its growth. It is well known that all of the inhabited portion of this Territory was acquired by treaty from Mexico. By the law of Mexico polygamy was prohibited in this country, and the municipal law in this respect remained unaltered by its cession to the United States. Has it been altered since we acquired it? After a most diligent search and inquiry, I have not been able to find that any such change has been made: and presuming that this law remains unchanged by legislation, all marriages after the first are by this law illegal and void. If you are then satisfied that such is the fact, your next duty is to inquire by what law in force in this Territory are such practices punishable. There is no law in this Territory punishing polygamy, but there is one, however, for the punishment of adultery; and all illegal intercourse between the sexes, if either party have a husband or wife living at the time, is adulterous and punishable by indictment. No consequences in which a large proportion of this people may be involved in consequence of this criminal practice will deter you from a fearless discharge of your duty. It is yours to find the facts and to return indictments, without fear, favor, affection, reward, or any hope thereof. The law was made to punish the lawless and disobedient, and society is entitled to the salutary effects of its execution."

9

The tendency of scientific thought had been, for a considerable period before the time of Bacon, turned in the direction which he, perhaps, did more than any other single investigator to follow out and confirm. Leonardo da Vinci, the completest and most comprehensive genius of Modern Italy, had anticipated, by more than a century, several of the prominent features of the Baconian system. Too little of Leonardo's scientific writings has been published to furnish material for a satisfactory determination of their importance in promoting the advance of knowledge,—but the coincidence of thought, in some passages of his writings, with that in some of Bacon's weighty sentences, is remarkable. "I shall treat of this subject," he says, in a passage published by Venturi, "but I shall first set forth certain experiments; it being my principle to cite experience first, and then to demonstrate why bodies are constrained to act in such or such a manner. This is the method to be observed in investigating phenomena of Nature. It is true that Nature begins with the reason and ends with experience; but no matter; the opposite way is to be taken. We must, as I have said, begin with experience, and by means of this discover the reason."

Compare with this the two following passages from the "Novum Organum,"—the first being taken from the Ninety-ninth Axiom of the First Book. "Then only will there be good ground of hope for the further advance of knowledge, when there shall be received and gathered together into natural history a variety of experiments, which are of no use in themselves, but to discover causes and axioms."—The next passage is the Twenty-sixth Axiom of the same Book;—"The conclusions of human reason, as ordinarily applied in matter of nature, I call, for the sake of distinction, Anticipations of Nature (as a thing rash or premature). That reason which is elicited from facts by a just and methodical process I call Interpretation of Nature."

The first and famous axiom of the "Novum Organum" contains the phrase which Bacon constantly repeats,—"man being the interpreter of Nature." Leonardo uses the same expression,—"li omini inventori e interpreti tra la natura e gli omini." In another admirable passage of rebuke of the boastful and empty followers of old teachers, Leonardo says: "Though I might not cite authors as well as they, I shall cite a much greater and worthier thing, in citing experience, the teacher of their teachers" (Maestra di loro maestri). "And as for the overmuch credit," says Bacon, "that hath been given unto authors in sciences, in making them dictators that their words should stand, and not counsellors to give advice, the damage is infinite that sciences have received thereby."

Similar parallelisms of thought are to be found in some of Galileo's sentences, when brought into comparison with Lord Bacon.

10

Article on Whately's Edition of Bacon's Essays. September, 1856.